


and so it is (the shorter story)

by songofwinter



Category: A Song of Ice and Fire & Related Fandoms, Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: Ambiguous/Open Ending, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-03
Updated: 2019-06-03
Packaged: 2020-04-07 11:29:02
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,091
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19084108
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/songofwinter/pseuds/songofwinter
Summary: Jaime knows that his chances of saving King's Landing are slim. He has to try anyway.With help from the Lady of Winterfell, perhaps he can tell Brienne goodbye.8x04 canon divergence





	and so it is (the shorter story)

He found the Lady of Winterfell in her solar, her back turned to him as she leafed through the pages spread before her.

Jaime hesitated for a moment before breaking her focus. Sansa Stark did look strikingly like her mother, from her long auburn hair to the dignified way in which she held her shoulders. _My last chance for honor_ , he had once called her as he sent Brienne off on that mad quest. For his small part in the deed, Sansa had gifted him with her tentative trust and a place in her household. _A place alongside Brienne, for a time, no matter how it must end._

He knew Sansa would find little honor in what he meant to do next, but he could put it off for no longer. He had one last favor to ask of her. _Not for me,_ he reminded himself. _For Brienne._ That would need to be enough for the eldest Stark daughter.

"Lady Sansa," he stepped forward.

"Ser Jaime," she answered, looking up from the parchments she had been poring over. He had never found himself alone with the Lady of Winterfell before this moment, and he had expected his approach would take her somewhat by surprise. She instead seemed almost as if she had been expecting him.

"I never did thank you," she said. "For what you did for me. For Lady Brienne." She paused for a moment — wrestling with her courtesies, Jaime suspected. _It still feels wrong on her tongue to thank a Lannister._

"I am not sure that I should," she admitted a beat later, though not with particular malice.

"No," Jaime agreed. "I deserve none of your thanks. It is because of Ser Brienne that you are home."

The corners of Sansa's lips twitched upwards almost imperceptibly to hear the name, if only for an instant.

"It is," she said. "Much as Brienne insists otherwise."

"Anyhow, I have come to thank you, my lady," Jaime said. "You were kind to stop the lot of them from feeding me to a dragon, and kinder to extend your hospitality for this turn of a moon."

"You are welcome as a guest here for as long as you would like," Sansa said, but underneath the words there was something almost like a challenge. _She knows what I mean to do,_  he realized, _and she is daring me to act otherwise._ He wondered for how long she had suspected him — since they had received word of Cersei's petty victories, in all likelihood. Victories that would only lead to King's Landing's doom.

"I have something for you," Jaime said instead, digging into his pocket and coming up with a carefully folded letter. "For Ser Brienne. I need someone to give this to her when the time is right, and you are the only person here that I trust to do it."

Sansa's eyes flitted to the letter, then went cold as they fixed on his.

"Give it to her yourself," she said.

"I need you to give this to her when I am dead."

"I understood, ser," she said. "Give it to her yourself. Or better yet, tell her yourself. She deserves that much."

"As much as what? To go to King's Landing and die alongside me? Or, if by some miracle I convince her to stay here, to torment herself as if she owes me some debt? No," he shook his head. "It is better this way." _And what if I am weak?_ another part of him whispered. _What if she convinces me to stay?_ It was a chance he could not take. Not with Cersei sitting atop wildfire beneath the city, and a dragon breathing fire overhead.

"Even if Daenerys wins — and she still has a dragon, which I would say tips the outcome in her favor — Cersei will never accept defeat by herself," he said. "She would have every man, woman, and child burn with her. You were her hostage. If there is anyone here who understands her aside from me, it is you."

"I do," Sansa sighed, seeming suddenly quite weary as some of the steel left her voice.

"I can stop her," he pressed. "I have a better chance than anyone else, at least. Brienne must see the truth. I will not have her die for me, but nor will I have her live the rest of her life believing that I did not..." he glanced down toward the sealed parchment in his hand. "She must know."

Sansa held his gaze silently for a long moment, but she took the letter from him nonetheless. He felt a weight lift off his shoulders.

"After I've died," he reminded her. "You swear it?"

"I swear it."

"Thank you, my lady," he said. _For everything,_ he might have added. _For allowing these past few glorious weeks._ He could only hope that Brienne might someday find some measure of solace in the memories of their last days together — training with Pod in the yard, stealing kisses in the castle's halls between her duties as Sansa's sworn sword, at night retreating to Brienne's chamber — _their chamber_ — where he would pleasure her until she was flushed and moaning beneath the thick furs the Northerners used to stave away the cold, waking the next morning to her soft breathing and their bodies tangled together.

A lump began forming in his throat as he accepted those days as already gone, even as he stood within the castle's walls with Brienne just a short walk away. It was wiser not to relive all of that right now. Perhaps at the very end he could allow it, but not now, while he still had so many miles to go without breaking. Writing the letter had been hard enough.

"When will you leave?" Sansa asked.

"Tonight."

Sansa nodded and was quiet for a spell.

"Your family ripped my house apart," she said at last. "They stole my life away when I was little more than a child. Brienne said you were different, that you wanted me safe. That you were a man of honor. I had trouble imagining it, and then you rode up here alone..." she trailed off. "She never used to smile."

Sansa looked as if she might say more, but instead she shook her head.

"Lord Baelish once told me that life is not a song," she said. "We won the great war, and yet here we are. I am sorry for her, Ser Jaime. I am even sorry for you. But you have made your decision. Go."

**Author's Note:**

> I started writing this after 8x04 when I still had some hope that d&d were trying to mislead us and that Jaime was actually leaving Brienne to protect her/to try to stop Cersei and save King's Landing. But like most of us, I wasn't happy with the way their goodbye was executed even when I thought the plot was going in that direction. I've always been fascinated at the thought of potential interactions between Jaime, Brienne, and Sansa, so I decided to use three of my favorite characters in the series to try to make a little more sense of it all with this little added-in scene.
> 
> I'm shy about posting fic to begin with and told myself that if anything I wouldn't be posting show-verse fic, but look how that went.


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